Chapter eight’s concept of teaching students the art of writing an argument is indeed interesting.  Whether a template works or not, I’m not sure.   In elementary school, I used to love the exercises where we had to fill in the blanks.  They were easy, and they had a clear right or wrong / yes or no answer.  But as we grow older, we crave challenge.  If we don’t, its because we’re not understanding the concept, or it’s just boring. 

Ginny makes a nice point about the importance of engaging students in “cultural and academic debates”.  Debates challenge students to research and stand for what they truly believe in, to defend it.  A teacher’s job would therefore be providing a variety of intellectual and engaging topics for students to choose and work with.  Templates may confine student thinking.  I say this because when I started college, I had brought with me the idea that all that mattered was the grade.  I would follow the exact guidelines and templates of my instructors.  I would write papers based on the extent they agreed with the lectures.  But before long, I noticed I was not enjoying college.  I would receive the A that I desired, but the grade was still not satisfying.  This was the case until I took a class on Shakespeare plays, where the teacher helped me understand the material, required the students to take a stand on issues from the text, such as how it related to personal beliefs: i.e. bonds, honesty.  Then learning fell into place.  Debates enhanced learning. I didn’t learn to argue from a formula, but from a passion the professor helped me find toward the material.

In a previous comment I expressed my desire to acquire a more sophisticated vocabulary.  Graff’s section on A Word for Words and a Vote for Quotes reminded me of the vocabulary exercises I would do in high school.  In school vocabularies meant true/false or choose the correct definition from a/b/c/d.  Francois makes a good point about the method educators use in teaching vocabulary.  Memorizing was really not my thing.  But either way my school required that we memorize and learn twenty six words per week.  We had exercises in our workbook to help us learn the words, and quizzes to see if we had learned them.  But the teachers didn’t have time to explain each word, and we didn’t have time to really understand them.  So it was just another homework that was forgotten once turned in.  I had to restudy most of the terms for the SATs.  I succeeded, but not because of the vocabulary workbook we were handed in school, but because I had searched for different vocabulary software that helped me understand and digest each word through pictures, vivid examples and much more.  The best part was that I actually enjoyed the activities.  So my point is methods we use are very important in finding interest in the subject we are teaching.  Perhaps if we didn’t have to “memorize” 26 words per week, and instead worked thoroughly on only six, we would have been left with much more.

Chapter nine on criticism reminded me just how difficult understanding criticism can be for students.  I learned about literary criticism in English 325, sophomore year in college.  Every single one of our papers required that we read what critiques had to say about a short story, and then compare and contrast their opinions to each other.  We were allowed to jump in any time, but normally we had to take one side.  As if that was not scary enough, our professor would then return our papers having marked every single grammatical and syntax error he found.  We had to then rewrite the paper and hand it in to receive a plus on the letter grade we had received.  The class did help me understand criticism, but it didn’t help me enjoy writing about Literature.  Which is more essential I ask.       

“The ability to listen, summarize, and respond” (3). So that’s what literacy is all about. If only all teachers and professors could be this clear, the world would be filled with students confident in their reading and writing. I too had difficulty with class conversations, wondering why everyone understood the text so well, or why I would end a chapter in my text book and not remember an idea from that chapter. Before entering colleges our high school teachers do inform us that college has a much larger workload than high school. The schools try to prepare us by making us sit in 90 minute sessions with only ten minute breaks from 7 AM. I went to one of those so called “star schools” – known for its excellence in academia in the state. In fact when my parents were looking for a house, their first criteria was to find a house that was close to McLean High School. On silver days I had gym, and on red days I had biology. I hated red days. I remember when I entered college I was so relieved that I had a choice to pick my own hours. Though I’m still not sure if it were the 90 minute sessions that prepared me for college. I was home schooled in the final year of high school, but was still admitted to college. I found college to be a great deal of self discipline, I did less idling, more studying, and it all paid off.

However, I suffered. I did not know how to listen to the lectures and take notes at the same time. The professors would lecture really fast. Some professors would lecture with Power Point slide shows and would go on to the next slide before I could finish writing the material from the previous slide. I eventually gave up and decided to write down whatever I saw or heard, and then try to understand them before an exam or paper. I did not learn how to summarize and respond, how to make an argument. As long as I had the format of an argumentative essay: the thesis, the body, the conclusion, I thought I would be okay. Luckily I had some professors who helped stop that cycle before I lost interest in academia. They taught me to choose topics based on how deeply I believed in them, and argue accordingly. I was able to enjoy reading again. I agree with Graff in that “students must not only read texts, but find things to say about them, and no text tells you what to say about it” (9). If instructors teach students how to talk about text, students can learn to enjoy the process of listening, summarizing and responding.

Dan’s experience with his writing process, from “The Reading-Writing Connection” really engaged me throughout the entire reading. Glen argued that Dan was writing about an idea that he did not believe in (p.111), but later she admitted that it was her who was not “letting” Dan write the argument in the manner that he saw it. She engages the reader with the questions she asks herself about Dan, but she does not answer them. The semester comes to an end and all along I wanted to know what happened to Dan. Did he change his argument? Did he receive a better grade? And if so why? How can we connect with the student who sees the text completely different from the rest of the class, and as a result enters his/her own quiet zone during class discussions? These and many more questions cross my mind as I prepare to begin my teaching career.

Another one of Glen’s methods that interested me was her experience on teaching the reading of Frankenstein as a first time reader of Frankenstein. I wonder if novice students will think differently about an instructor they feel is not experienced in a specific work he/she is teaching. Will that take away from the instructor’s authority, or will it create confidence in the students? In general, I liked how Glen would bring her student’s writings to support the methods she used in class.

Bloom’s piece also provided practical theories that can help students in the reading and writing process. He argues that when students understand what they have done, they will be the one’s worried about perfecting the text. I completely agree with this idea. I had Literature and writing instructors who made the process of understanding text, writing about it, and rewriting so clear, that it made me change my undergraduate major from IT to English. In order for students learn the process, they must take risks in their writing. Glenn shows good examples on how students can take risks. For example on page 101 when she asks students to imitate sentence structure and summarize the text. Short activities like these not only motivates students to work without overwhelming them, but also teaches issues like style and sentence structure.

Thanks Renee for letting me know that I was not the only person who found Textual Power really difficult to understand. In fact for me I thought none of the matters was sinking in until I read Professor Sample’s question, which was a great help for giving me a direction to begin my post. On page 24 Scholes mentions “our job is not to produce “readings” for our students but to give them the tools for producing their own”. My guess is the Andrea Mantegna’s painting would be considered a tool for understanding and criticizing Hemingway’s fiction. For students who don’t understand art very well, like myself, I would argue that in fact that painting does not help me push from interpretation to criticism. I am a big fan of Hemingway’s works. His simple, yet intriguing sentences can already spark different criticism and interpretation. Mantegna’s painting does not necessarily add or subtract from my understanding of the work, unless it is fully discussed in a classroom setting, and I am able to hear the views of others in class.

Although I do not deny that for many other works a painting or “marginal cultural allusion” can actually help students begin criticizing a work. For some students maybe a painting is not enough to spark criticism. For example when a teacher asks students to compare a work of Shakespeare, like the text of Romeo and Juliet with the most recent Hollywood version of the story, students can easily begin the criticizing and interpretation process because they can relate to the recent version that uses guns and other familiar cultural props. They can then compare the differences and understandings of the original text. This activity helps students explore the different interpretations, and how to criticize.

“essays say what they mean and stories do not” (p.22).

I likedhow Scholes spells out the different tasks of essays and stories. I realized one of the reasons stories are so highly appreciated among all ages and cultures is that it allows the audience to come up with their own interpretations based on their own cultural experiences. I always wondered why my creative writing instructors were not very concerned about format and grammar, and why being good at punctuation does not necessarily make you a good writer.

I especially enjoyed chapter five as Scholes walked the reader step by step through the bull fighting story explaining exactly how Hemingway walked with the reader to experience bull fighting.

But then from chapter 5 and 6 I really began to lose track of the text. Scholes’ comparison of the different formulas and commentators like Jameson, de Man, and the hermetic theoreticians threw me off. Even the quotes on page 83 which seemed very simple to read seemed like a different language. I’m looking forward to understanding them in class tomorrow.

This assignment helped me see my growth as a writer in such a short period of time.  Although I have only posted four blogs, each blog has helped me identify difficulties and advances in my writing.   In my blogs I specifically discuss issues that I have struggled with in reading and writing about Literature.  I then highlight and note areas in our reading assignments and class discussions that help me realize why I struggled in a specific area of literature, reading, or writing.  This combined practice helps me note the problem areas my future students may face, and as a result helps me devise plans to help make it easier for those students struggling in reading or writing.  Coming from a bicultural and bilingual background where English was hardly spoken at home, and the literature discussed at home was Persian Literature, I can understand the difficulties students with different backgrounds can face when reading and writing about American Literature. So the weekly blogs have helped me identify reasons for these difficulties I faced in reading and writing, and use this knowledge in my future teaching experience.
Recurring themes that I noticed in my blogs were issues pertaining to understanding poetry, and a teacher’s ability and art to teach writing and reading. I have brought examples from my high school and undergraduate teachers who impacted my writing and literary skills.  But, I have also realized that the nature of my posts has changed after the four weeks.  Now, I tend to write less about my previous writing experiences, and focus more on writing about the text and how I will be using what I learn from here on in my future teaching.  For example in my last week’s post I show more comparison of Blau’s work and our class discussion, as opposed to my own experiences.  Although I still continue to write about my experiences as it helps me put the subject matter into perspective, but I have been able to focus more on the text and class discussions in my writings.
Certain subjects encouraged me to write more than others, especially when I was able to compare and contrast my own experiences to those in the text.  For example during the week we read the visible knowledge project, I was able to write more than the other posts because I was able to see more practical methods of teachings rather than theoretical methods.  Whereas in my third post “Author vs. Reader” I did not write much on Crossman’s article because I felt it was dealing more with theory, and I was not able to respond as effective.  Instead I paid more attention to the Think Aloud project in my post.  Although I do agree that theory and practice must work together to provide productive results in teachings, but I realized that for me writing on practice is much easier than writing about theories.
For my future blogs I will try to focus on the texts we are assigned to read and find practical methods to connect the text with our class discussions.  I will also continue learning from the teaching methods my classmates mention in their blogs. I have tried to read the blogs of my classmates before writing my own, so that I can compare my experience with others.  Relating the experiences of others gives me new perspectives in my writing.  In general I find the blogging experience to be very helpful, and I will definitely return to my discussions in the future.  I will especially return to the posts pertaining to practical teaching methods and techniques.

The examples Sheridan Blau provides from his teaching experience, especially his teaching poetry are very clear and easy to follow. I especially enjoyed the case scenario in the introduction with Wordsworth’s “My heart Leaps Up.” In addition to the step by step process he had the students follow, his discussion on how much we need to to know about the author in order to understand the poem took me back to our class discussions on how much information do we need to know on the author. The case that Blau was presenting suggested that knowing about the author is not really necessary and can at times be misleading. I agree that students are capable of understanding a poem without knowing the background of the author or certain terms, but I also believe that knowing the definition of certain terms during the poet’s lifetime can actually help students with understanding a poem.

Blau does a nice job defining a poet’s task of simplifying complex matters into a few lines. The student/reader’s task is to decode the concepts within those lines. “Poetic difficulty” is universal, and students from every culture are forced to experience this difficulty. The art of the teacher is to help them understand that poetry is difficult, yet the students are capable of understanding them if they focus.

Blau’s discussion on page 23 on why teachers may skip difficult text reminded me of my own teachers. When learning poetry, many of my teachers would put so much emphasis on making the class memorize and learn the author’s biographical information, that it really took my focus away from possible deeper meanings within a poem. My understandings of poetry were limited to the penciled in translations above each line in a poem we were studying dictated to us by the teacher. Our essays about a poem only expanded on those definitions and meanings and explained why they work. I was content and felt safe when the teacher would give me the right answer, and when left alone I feared to think of deeper meanings in a poem. Although I agree with Laura on the matter of lecturing, in fact I believe students have to be lectured. But I believe that any form of lecturing should be short, say twenty minutes or so. Something that will not cause students to doze off and just write down anything they hear just to stay awake. In many of the lectures I would just write so many notes without understanding a word the teacher was saying. My plan was to go home and figure everything out on my own, and then compare it to the lectures.

Crosman, Hirsch, and Mailloux all make valid arguments about meaning, but I would agree with Crosman’s idea that the reader makes the ultimate meaning. A reader’s understanding of a poem can be completely different from the author’s intention.

I especially saw this matter in our think aloud project, where J.J, Matt, and Edith would go back and forth discussing whether this poem relied on the story “Hansel and Gretel”, or whether it was referring to Nazi Germany. I realized that both these analysis required previous knowledge whether about the story or about history. Their final discussions on whether this poem is about abuse derived from these matters. For someone who does not have this knowledge however, the poem can mean something completely different. Different techniques also come into play when trying to understand the author’s poem.

Again as presented in the two Think aloud projects, one reader and or group may focus too much on the history and background of the author and how it relates to the poem, and another may just focus on the word choices and how they relate to each other and to the poem as a whole. With me for example, even though I did have previous knowledge about both issues Group 1 brought up, when I first read the poem those were not my impressions about the poem. I tend to focus first on the words of a poem, or format the poem is written, like an indentation or the number of lines. Of course once we discussed the poem as a class I would enjoy writing about the significance of the poem. So I would argue that because readers each choose different manners to tackle a poem first hand, they can come up with their own meaning of the poem, each valid on their own terms.

With less experienced English students I agree with Leana that many students dislike doubts, and that is why they do not enjoy Literature. I remember wanting to contact the author when I was in high school to find out the “true” meaning of a poem, it was like solving a mystery. But I think as we mature in our reading experience we naturally overcome that phase and begin to look into how a poem or story relates to our own lives.

The Visible Knowledge Project encouraged me to look into my development as a reader.

This weeks readings gave me many great ideas to use in my future teaching experiences. So my post may seem a bit scattered this week.

Randy Bass’s comment about using Word’s comment feature to “think-aloud” made me realize how helpful this feature has been for me. In my editing experience working with a group of foreign students who learned English and reading in their own country, I had to frequently use the comment feature in Word to think aloud the reasons I believed their articles and sentence structures lacked clarity. This in turn helped me discover my own reading and writing process.

I believe Arthur Laui’s method of asking students to write an autobiography of themselves to help them understand the biographies of others is very effective. Writing biographies of others were very difficult for me because of the extent of research that needed to be done and the rigid format we had to follow. Students enjoy to write about themselves to discover their strengths, and as a result can interest them into reading the biographies of others.

From this week’s readings I especially enjoyed Dr. Linkon’s article as it helped answer my questions on how to keep students engaged and interested in reading and how to help them look away from their first impressions. Novice readers and writers are constantly looking to find answers. When a student answers a question in class, he/she may gain a sense of accomplishment for that day’s class. Many times students do not ask questions because they are looking for the perfect question to ask in their readings. Open-ended questions frustrate them because they cannot find that perfect answer.

Portfolios are indeed helpful for students to lose fear of the writing process. I always enjoyed writing rough drafts in my English literature classes because I felt I could write about anything I felt about a text without being judged or graded. It gave me a sense of freedom in my thinking and writing, and it made me enjoy reading. Portfolios are in a sense similar because the student can enjoy his/her step by step process without worrying about the final end result. And where once the student felt she must find an answer to feel accomplished, she can instead receive the same feeling of accomplishment by putting all her pieces together to complete a whole.

Key findings annotation three made me think about my “reading process”. I was always told to keep a writing journal, and to write whatever would come to my mind. I wish I had done the same for my writing journal. In my reading process whenever I came upon a word or content that I did not understand, I would skip that section hoping to understand by listening to the class discussion. A reading journal could have really helped in this matter. As students write about their difficulties to understanding a text, they help themselves improve.

The inquiry project annotation helped me realize one thing my teachers did to help me identify good questions to ask about a text were the compare and contrast literary text assignments. Those assignments helped me put both stories in perspective and narrow my scattered thoughts about each story.

Under defining critical reading practices the article mentioned, “good critical reading requires rereading”. Which I completely agree, because it is similar to rewriting. But my question is what about those students who don’t see a point to reading again. They go with the assumption that no matter how many times they read, they will get the same results. How can we encourage those students to reread?

Randy’s key findings annotation 3 helped me understand why many students including me had a difficult time concluding their papers. I was able to write pages on my interpretation to Hills like White Elephants, but when it came to summing the paper up, I would just freeze. My teachers would remind me that the conclusion is just a restatement of the thesis and introduction, except with a slightly different twist. I could not grasp that different twist. So instead I would write a conclusion without feeling it was my own creativity. Randy’s comment on students “not closing down on interpretation” because of a lack of method, can help many students put this matter into perspective.

Bransford’s piece on Experts Differ from Novices made me analyze my instructors and courses during my undergraduate years. Like Susan and Sara, I too had difficulty with poems. Only I was good at dissecting a poem or story, and giving my peers feedback on their poems, but I never learned to write a poem. I would follow the guidelines my instructors would give on how to construct a certain poem like a sonnet, but I never learned how a poem should feel, sound, and taste. I would complete my poetry portfolios with excellent grades, but I was never satisfied with my poems. The poems my classmates wrote were poetic, and my poems were simple. My peers would give me good reviews me for my grammar and clarity, but nothing on how I can sound poetic. I came to accept that I just did not have the art of writing complex poetry.

The readings however made me realize that maybe the reason I could not write poetry was novice instructors who may have been experts in their fields, but not experts in teaching their fields. I say this because I have had instructors who made me fall in love with a course just by the methods they taught it. For example, I have studied many lessons from different instructors on Shakespeare. But only one instructor in my third year of college made me truly appreciate Shakespeare. He was an expert not only in the subject matter but also in teaching it. The method he used for teaching Shakespeare was very well organized. His interpretation of the text always helped me relate to it in my environment. And thus, I was able to enjoy every minute of the course and excel on the course projects and exams without trouble. The course made me realize that I had not been able to understand Shakespeare because of the methods it was being taught. Many of my previous Shakespeare classes had been so occupied with memorizing dates, names, and chronological events, that it completely took the joy out of learning.

Bransford mentions that not all experts are able to teach their expertise. I therefore realized that not all poets can teach students how to write a poem. When writing a poem I would be constantly checking on the form and the structure, anything that could help me meet the line limit.

Several years ago I began working on a website with a group of students who wrote and critiqued Persian literature, and then translated them into English. When I began editing their translations, at times I was forced to change whole paragraphs so their arguments would make sense in the English language. My peers would get frustrated and ask what was wrong with their translations. They would argue that they had followed all the grammatical rules. They were so used to the patterns that they had studied, that when asked to look beyond their patterns, they were overwhelmed. These students had remained in that first stage of punctuation and hadn’t moved on.

I completely agree with Bransford on how experts in a field who teach, yet are not an expert in teaching can actually harm a student’s ability in learning that study. Similarly a teacher who is not an expert in the course he/she is teaching can also harm a students’ ability to learn.

-Nafiseh